Should I Start Bucky Irving?

Thursday, October 8, 8:01 PM

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving channeled his inner rookie season in his team's stunning Week 5 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football. The third-year pro rushed 21 times for 165 yards and one touchdown and caught two of three targets for 10 yards and another score. He gashed the hapless Cowboys defense multiple times, including on a special rush in which he juked multiple defenders to break through the defensive line and ran down the sideline for a huge explosive play. Irving dominated backfield touches for his team, with no other Bucs RB handling more than five carries, which is excellent news for his fantasy value moving forward. He appears to have put any injury concerns behind him and slammed the door shut on any ideas of a committee backfield moving forward. Dallas' defense is one of the worst in the NFL, and that certainly contributed to Irving's big night, but he made a strong case to be a workhorse RB1 moving forward. A Week 6 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers looms -- they have a middling run defense, which should allow Irving to have another solid outing. He's pushed back into low-end RB1 territory for now.